Rock Band Drum Repair

So after fixing the cymbal pad for Guitar Hero, I found that the RED drum pad for my RB kit was broken as well. I always thought the RED and GREEN pads had a little too much bounce in them and that the thin plastic would not hold up to the constant banging of the drum sticks. To keep from having to fix the GREEN side in the future I reinforced it as well.

To start, my assistant and I had to completely take apart the drums. Here is the process we followed.

REMOVE THE BATTERIES!

This consists of removing all the drum heads by gently prying them up from the body of the kit. It is best done by grabbing them from underneath the pad at the points where they are held in by conical shaped rubber heads. You can find them by looking at the underside of the kit and looking for the 4 holes.

With that done, turn the kit over and remove the six (6) screws that hold the housing on the "brain". With that uncovered you can remove the two (2) screws that hold down the circuit board on top, (This may or may not be required, but I like having everything apart)

Turn the kit back over with the brain and battery compartment hanging, carefully place it on a work surface so that the wires and ribbon cables aren't being strained.
At this point, we needed to remove the inner plastic drum housings to get access to the very bottom of the outer housing. There are about six (6) screws for each drum. Remove them and each half will pop out. (NOTE: pics were taken after the work was completed)




So now with these inner housings removed we could start the prep work for the reinforcements. A piece of wood about 1/2" thick, 2" wide and 13 1/4" long was used. We started by positioning and clamping it in place so that it went across the whole drum pad as well as having ample space on the inner drum pad to be anchored. I did think about using some Gorilla Glue as well, but was afraid it would make the kit too stiff.

With the wood in place, I drilled holes from the inside using a 5/32" drill bit, but just through the plastic, not the wood. On the outside drum the holes were in the channel on the outside ridge of the drum housing. On the inside drum, the holes were just evenly spaced out in line with the wood. Be careful of the wires and how they are routed so that you are not placing a screw where it might end up rubbing against a wire with the constant bouncing of the pad.

After drilling the holes in the plastic, I pilot drilled holes in the wood with a 3/32" drill bit so that the screws didn't crack it. Once all the holes are drilled, use regular sheet rock screws to secure the drums to the wood. I used 1 1/4" course screws, but had to cut off the tips to get rid of the sharp points. I would suggest either 1" or 3/4" screws to avoid the extra step.

With both sides screwed to the wood, we were able to reassemble the drums in the reverse order. Here is a pic of the final job. I'll probably paint the wood black so it isn't so noticeable.

Broken already??!!!!

Yes, I have managed to break a component of the Guitar Hero drum set.
After rigging all the drum and cymbal pads with dish towels to dampen the sound, I figured I had solved my problems with the noise and thus all my drumming problems for now. But NO!!

After a long morning of job searching, I look to my Guitar Hero set list for some comfort. After playing for a bit and finally being able to download Black Betty, I see that the YELLOW cymbal pad is hanging a bit too low and askew. Upon further examination I see that the pad has cracked away from the mounting ring. See below.
As you can see, this makes banging out the beats to Black Betty pretty difficult.
But alas, I had a plan. After previous issues with keeping my silencer pads secured to my Rock Band kit, I found that Gorilla Glue is excellent at keeping things in place.

So with tools in hand, I set to work.
After properly cleaning and air drying the pieces, I followed the directions on the glue. Very simple procedure: Damp It, Glue It, Clamp it. After a few Q-tips worth of glue was applied to both surfaces, I was able to deftly clamp it together using one small clamp on the pad end as a stationary point to hold the large clamp in place to keep tension on the pad and mounting ring.
See Below again:



After all this was complete, it only took about 10 minutes. I swapped discs pulled out the drum set for Rock Band. As I'm preparing to complete the 80's Marathon in the Gorilla Dome, Tokyo, I realize that the RED drum pad is kind of bouncing funny when I hit it. Again, I investigate only to find that the actual plastic body of the drum set is breaking under the RED drum.
I'll update how that was fixed.

Why the Guitar Hero Set Lists SUCK & what Harmonix and Activision should know about upcoming song discs.

As I talk to Rick right now about all the cool songs in the Guitar Hero set lists, I am greatly disheartened that I can not play or even download the songs from previous versions of GH. This is complete and utter BULLSHIT!!!!.

There are a ton of songs, that may not be great songs, but are fun songs to play. Right now the Guitar Hero website lists 468 songs but if you're like me and only like to play the drums, you only have 143 songs available to you. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Rock Band songs, there are over 400 songs I can play on the drums or anyone else can play on the guitar or sing.

Herein lies the problem with Activision. We know the people from Harmonix came from the Activision school of thought (and their labs and offices). But they went the triumphant step ahead and created the drum pads and karaoke on steroids sing along. To make things better, they made the game backwards compatible so that you could save all your RB1 songs on your X-Box 360 and play them on RB2. Then, in a stroke of geniues they offer a Wal-Mart only sale of AC/DC Live songs. So not only do you have a long list of great songs from the original game and RB2, but a game of just songs from an iconic American band.

It seems to me that Activision is behind the times with the release of the Metallica game. It will be more disapointing if I have to keep switching discs to play different songs.

It would make more sense for both Activision and Harmonix to just offer the games as DLC online for the same price, then I wouldn't have to wait to have it delivered from Wal-Mart or my local game store (Game Stop, etc.) to have it in stock.

What is up witht he hardwood drum pads?

Unfortunately, my next post is a complaint.

I'd been playing Rock Band and Rock Band 2 for a few months now and was very reluctant to try the Guitar Hero World Tour game. Seeing as Circuit City was going out of business and I was there anyway, I made an impulsive purchase decision and finally picked up GHWT.

I was excited that the drum kit would more resemble my Simmons SD7K electronic drum kit.
Then came the dilemma, even with stereo headphones on full blast, I could still hear the loud tapping from the drum stick hitting the drum head as if I was hitting a piece of plywood.
Of course there is no drum silencer kit for this drum kit as was available for the Rock Band drum kit and the aftermarket kits would require cutting one of the pads for the cymbals.

Next up, a negative note on the Guitar Hero set lists.

WELCOME, HOME ROCKSTARS!!!!

I am new to the blogging world but decided that since I spend a great deal of time playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I should write and share my feelings of these games. I am open-minded to others opinions of these games and welcome you to share your thoughts as well. I only ask that we all share a mutual respect and don't trash-talk each other, save that for the games, their instruments and song set lists.

A little bit about me. I am 30 years old and have been playing mostly first person shooter and / or action / killer for as long as I can remember. In the days when my parents controlled what was played on their TV, it was usually Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, and RC Pro Am on my original Nintendo. As time went on, I moved on to the Resident Evil series on Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2. For a time when my employer had me working in the northern part of New York, my PlayStation 2 was a lifesaver serving as both video game console and DVD player for 11 months in various hotels. I jumped on the X-Box band wagon when Halo came out, as did just about every other X-Box owner. I admit, I was addicted to the game. I spent many nights online playing people from all over the US and the world. My volunteer fire department even had a couple of TV's and a 24 port switch that we used when several members brought their systems and controllers down. I followed the band wagon with Halo 2 and Halo 3 which brought me to the purchase of my X-Box 360. After some time playing the various shooting games, ie. Mercenaries, Rainbow 6, Rainbow 6 Las Vegas, Men of Valor and of course Call of Duty 3, I decided to put down my sniper rifle and give the drums a chance.

It was a great decision that led me to purchasing an electronic drum set that I practice with several hours a week, sometimes drumming along with Rock Band songs in "No Fail" mode.

So this is my introduction. I will post my first band post shortly.